In 2026, we’re finally seeing the player the Washington Commanders thought they drafted with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
While Chase Young is doing it two teams later with the New Orleans Saints, he’s doing it at such a high level that he’s now second in the NFL with 7.0 sacks through 7 games, following a dominant performance in his team’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Paris.
Young trails Houston Texans edge rusher and NFL All-Pro Will Anderson Jr. by just a half-sack.
For a team that struggles to get to the passer, it’s likely a bitter pill to swallow for the Commanders and their fans, who cut bait on Young with a trade to the San Francisco 49ers midway through the 2023 season.
“Chase Young is having a terrific season in New Orleans,” The Athletic’s David Aldridge wrote on his official X account on Sunday. “Didn’t work out in D.C., obviously, but he’s resurrected his career with the Saints. Good for him.”
“Chase Young has 22.5 sacks since leaving the 49ers after the 2023 season,” The Associated Press wrote on X. “No one on Niners has more than 11 in that span.”
“Saints don’t play many island games, so if you’re just watching them for the first time … this is how Chase Young has been playing for the last two seasons,” Saints reporter Nick Underhill wrote on X. “He’s about to be a $40+ million/year man.”
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Chase Young Headed for Massive New Contract
Headed into his 8th season and now with the New Orleans Saints — his 3rd team — Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport called Young’s next big-money deal 1 of the NFL’s “Most Important Contract Decisions” in 2026.
Young signed a 3-year, $51 million contract with the Saints in March 2025.
“Last year, it finally came together for Saints edge-rusher Chase Young,” Davenport wrote on August 2. “It didn’t look like it was going to — the former No. 2 overall pick missed the season’s first five games with a calf injury. But once Young was back on the field, he caught fire—a career-high 10 sacks in 12 games … Young is under contract through 2027 at a bargain price relative to what other high-end edge-rushers make. If he can back up last year’s numbers with a hot start in 2026, extending the 27-year-old now could save the Saints a boatload of scratch down the road.”
Chase Young Part of Dreadful Run of Draft Picks
After securing the first big-time payday of his career, Young delivered the best season of his career in 2025 as the Saints were 1 of the NFL’s most-improved teams down the stretch under rookie head coach Kellen Moore.
Young’s deal was being singled out as one of the NFL’s “Best Free Agent Signings” of the 2025 cycle by PFF’s Bradley Locker.
It’s a far cry from when Young’s time with the Commanders ended midway through the 2023 season as one of the biggest busts in franchise history.
“The Saints made a rarely large move when they retained Young on a three-year, $51 million contract to prevent him from leaving,” Locker wrote. “In turn, Young absolutely dominated when on the field with an 86.3 PFF pass-rush grade and a 15.2% pass-rush win rate. The former No. 2 overall pick appears to have settled into form with the Saints.”
Young was part of an incredible run of 1st-round picks who didn’t pan out for the Commanders — 6 picks in 5 years from 2019 to 2023 no longer on their roster by the end of the 2024 season.
The biggest bust of the bunch was Young. Following a torn ACL suffered in Week 10 of the 2021 regular season, Young missed 22 of the next 25 regular-season games, including all but 3 games in 2022 — a 2-season stretch in which he had just 1.5 sacks.
Young revamped his career in 2023 with 7.5 sacks while playing for both the Commanders and the San Francisco 49ers after a midseason trade and was a role player as the 49ers made it to the Super Bowl.
Young took the momentum from his time with the 49ers and parlayed that into a 1-year, $13 million contract with the Saints in 2024, when he played in every regular-season game for the first time in his career and finished with 5.5 sacks, 8 TFL and 21 QB hits.
Ex-Commanders 1st-Round Pick Rises to Second in NFL in Sacks